Prevailing wage information delayed as IDOL modernizes

Should not impact local governments

Scott Cousins, scousins@civitasmedia.com

Published
5:05 pm CDT, Wednesday, June 8, 2016

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Prevailing wage information delayed as IDOL modernizes

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WOOD RIVER — When Superintendent John Pearson of the East Alton-Wood River High School District recently went online to find information on the state’s prevailing wages, all he could find was last year’s information.

Many municipalities, school districts and other governmental bodies start passing ordinances and resolutions dealing with the prevailing wage at this time of year. The prevailing wage must be paid to construction workers on projects involving public monies; another section of the law covers janitorial and maintenance, food service and security positions. It is especially important because of the large number of summer construction, renovation and repair projects.

According to an Illinois Department of Labor spokesman, the delay was caused in part by a change from a paper to an online survey as the department modernizes, and should not create any problems for local officials.

At Tuesday’s EAWR school board meeting, Pearson said the last wage information he could find was from 2015. The Illinois Department of Labor website also had a notice to contractors that the “prevailing wage survey,” used to determine those wages, is due on Friday, June 24.

Pearson was not the only person to notice this week. Assistant Madison County Regional Superintendent of Schools Andrew Reinking said his office received a call from another school district regarding the lack of 2016 prevailing wage information.

He called it “uncharted territory.”

“I’m not exactly sure how they’re going to handle it,” Reinking said Wednesday morning, adding he would be looking into the issue and was unsure what kind of effect it would have.

Ben Noble, an IDOL spokesman, said Wednesday afternoon that public bodies can use information from 2015 until the new prevailing wage information becomes available, probably in mid-July.

“We’re still conducting the survey,” he said. “It’s part of our new effort to modernize government procedures using today’s technology.”

He added that the delay had “nothing to do” with the state budget issue.